Warchest and expendatures.

[beevul]

Meanwhile, as new gun controls are discussed in Congress following the mass shooting in Tucson, Ariz., that killed six and injured 12, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), both gun control supporters and opponents might argue the political momentum is theirs.

But gun rights groups have significantly more resources invested in federal lobbying.

Between the second and fourth quarters of 2010, their lobbying expenditures have slightly increased, and the industry's total expenditures increased 13 percent over the past two years. In 2009, gun rights supporters spent $5.16 million on federal lobbying, and during 2010, these groups spent $5.82 million.

Gun control advocates, meanwhile, spent just $250,000 during 2010 -- an 18 percent increase above the $211,400 such groups spent in 2009.

http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2011/02/federal-lobbying-expenditures-plateau.html

Is the size of both the warchest and the expendatures, indicative of level of support and popularity of groups involved in the gun debate?

[Tunkamerica]

1. i would guess not in terms of numbers

the difference prob. comes from motivation. I don't donate to gun control groups because I virtually never think about guns. Someone who owns and shoots a gun probably thinks a lot more about guns and so is more likely to donate.

My barely considered guess.

[benEzra]

2. Motivation is definitely a very big part of it.

To you, whether or not the McCarthy's H.R.308 becomes law is probably not a huge deal either way. But it threatens me (and ~40 million others) with multiple 10-year Federal felonies, and would bar me from purchasing standard magazines for the rest of my life. So it's a big deal to me.

But numbers do matter to some degree; there are ~80 million gun owners total, mostly nonhunters, so if you get us motivated a la 1994, we're a pretty big bloc. There are highly motivated gun-control advocates, but gun owners probably outnumber them a thousand to one.

[Tunkamerica]

4. highly motivated gun control advocates tend to be created when gun violence

hits too close to home.

[X_Digger]

5. And their wharrgarble tends to be of the emotional sort- and quickly dismissed. n/t

[Name removed]

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[benEzra]

6. And thankfully, gun misuse is quite rare compared to responsible ownership...

and most murders are committed by people who didn't legally possess the gun in the first place, although there are a few (much-ballyhooed) exceptions. Hence the numbers.

[rl6214]

3. And that's with only 4 million NRA members

Can you imagine what it would be like if every gun owner rallied behind the pro gun movement?

[benEzra]

7. McCarthy et al are trying hard to recruit a whole lot of the bench-sitters into pro-gun activism.

I did a back-of-the-envelope guesstimate the other day about the number of gun owners her magazine ban would affect, and came up with ~40 million.